SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – It’s going to be a busy weekend in downtown Springfield with a major concert, a celebration of local businesses, and an Ironman Triathlon all at once.

Starting Friday, thousands of elite athletes will descend on the city for registration and final tune-ups. Joining them Saturday and Sunday will be some 10,000 Bruno Mars fans to catch him at the MassMutual Center making this a fantastic weekend to kick off the City of Springfield’s Restaurant Week!

Springfield restaurant week begins Friday and runs through June 18th with 28 restaurants participating with specially priced menus. There are events as part of that including a celebration at Dewey’s Jazz Lounge, live music at the Student Prince, and as always free music Friday at MGM Springfield.

Ironman events also begin downtown Friday afternoon with athlete check-in opening at the MassMutual Center at 2 p.m. The Ironman Village will also be open with an information booth, the official Ironman store, and a tech service center.

Springfield city officials are encouraging everyone to get downtown early for whatever you are excited to see, parking will be easiest and free at the MGM parking garage and the police department plans to have extra officers downtown to help direct all the foot and vehicle traffic.

Looking ahead to Saturday, Iron men and women will be arriving in droves. Athlete check-in opens for the first time Friday afternoon but the mandatory bike check-in and timing chip pickup only runs Saturday at Riverfront Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The race itself is scheduled for Sunday morning, starting gun set for 6 a.m.

Meantime, 14-time Grammy winner Bruno Mars is in town for a pair of shows on Saturday and Sunday, both starting at 8 p.m. As of Friday morning, there were 145 tickets left for both shows.

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Duncan MacLean is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2019. Follow Duncan on X @DMacLeanWWLP and view his bio to see more of his work.